Baseball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach (Recrutiing Coor.)
- Email:
- mfonteno@calpoly.edu
Matt Fonteno, who served as an assistant coach at USC, UC Santa Barbara, Saint Mary's and Nevada from 2013-22, was hired as associate head coach at Cal Poly in July 2022. He will work with the outfielders and serve as the team's recruiting coordinator.
Fonteno was an assistant coach at USC for the 2022 season, coaching the Trojan hitters to a .272 team batting average and 62 home runs. Second baseman Tyresse Turner earned All-Pac-12 honors with a .330 average while outfielder Rhylan Thomas hit .363 overall en route to a spot on the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.
Fonteno revitalized the Gauchos' offense over three seasons as an assistant coach (2019-21), the last two as associate head coach, and helped the team to the postseason each of the last two full seasons. The 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UCSB's runs per game jumped nearly two full runs after Fonteno arrived in 2019, with the Gauchos going 45-11 and earning a No. 2 seed in the Stanford Regional that year. After posting a 13-2 record in the shortened 2020 season, the UCSB offense scored the 18th most runs in the country in 2021, propelling the team to a 41-20 record and No. 3 seed in the Tucson Regional.
Under the watch of Fonteno, considered by his peers as a tremendous developer of talent, the Gauchos saw seven position players selected in the MLB Draft, produced three All-American position players (two freshmen) and had 10 position players earn All-Big West Conference recognition.
Prior to his time in Santa Barbara, Fonteno served as an assistant at Saint Mary's for five seasons (2014-18). In just two years, he helped turn the Gaels into perennial contenders on the West Coast. After a 16-39 record in 2014, Saint Mary's improved to 28-27 in 2015, its first winning season in six years. The 2016 season was even better for SMC as the Gaels went 33-25 en route to its first-ever West Coast Conference regular season title, first-ever WCC Tournament championship and first-ever trip to an NCAA Regional.
Saint Mary's continued its success with a 37-20 showing in 2017 and its third straight 30-win (31-23) season in 2018.
With Fonteno on staff, the Gaels matched a program record twice, with four players selected in both the 2016 and 2018 MLB drafts. In all, 13 Gaels were drafted during Fonteno's tenure, including 10 since 2016 when Fonteno took over as recruiting coordinator.
Prior to St. Mary's, Fonteno spent one season as an assistant coach at Nevada and four seasons as an assistant at Chico State. While at Chico State, Fonteno was a part of the 2012 Wildcats team that won the NCAA Division II West Region and advanced to the World Series. While serving as the recruiting coordinator at Chico State, he brought in 17 all-conference selections, one conference Freshman of the Year, eight All-West region selections, one All-American and two MLB Draft selections.
Before arriving at Chico, Fonteno spent three seasons as an assistant at UNLV, where he worked with outfielders, hitters and base runners, and had seven players taken in the MLB draft.
He has also served as an assistant coach at Cal Lutheran, one of the top Division III programs on the West Coast, while coaching summer ball with the Battle Creek Bombers (Mich.), Petersburg Generals (Va.) and the Highland Park Blue Sox (Texas).
Fonteno graduated in 2002 from York College in Nebraska, where he was an all-conference centerfielder and led the Panthers to their first ever national ranking. He also played collegiately at College of Marin in Kentfield, Calif.
Fonteno and his wife Lindsey have four children, Eva, Ty, Mia and Ali.
